St. Panteleimon church, Clements University

In the old part of Varoš, in the Plaošnik area, remains of Clements monastery exist, dedicated to St. Panteleimon. Here was the first Slavic University, the center of Slavic literacy and culture, the place where the beginnings of the Ohrid literary school were made. Clement, the first writer among the Macedonian Slavs, composed his literature creations among who is the master piece of the medieval Slavic literature: "Good words of Kiril".

Here was the hospital that both of Clements biographers, Teophilact in the 12th and Chomatijan 13th century write about, where healing was made without the use of magic, but by suggestion and hypnosis, and the sick received potions and teas from various plants. Clement of Ohrid is also considered to be the first Slavic composer and music teacher.

Clement will prepare 3500 students in his university in order to spread Slavic literacy in all the orthodox countries all the way to Russia.

With the archaeological research in 1965, the fact that Clement restored an abandoned monastery with the form of a shamrock with three leaves was confirmed. With the development of the church life there was a greater need of space for the believers and his students, so Clement built another church on the west side.

Both of the churches from Clements time suffered some changes. In 14th century a new church was built by the kesar Duka and his son Dimitrius, but in the 15th century with the coming of the Turks, the church was turned into a mosque. His remains were brought in the St. Mary mother of God - Peribleptos church, built in 1895 and since then it is known among the people as St. Clement church.

This 2000th year a great amount of funds was given by the Ministry of Culture to complete the archaeological research in the interior of Clements monastery, research that led to the discovery of more than 500 tombs of monks, nuns and artefacts from the tombs, such as: parts of gold plated tunics, a large number of encolpiones, double pectoral crosses with a depictions of St. Mary Mother of God and The Crucifixion, that were used as relicts of the monks from Clements monastery. A lot of coins have also been discovered: Venice coins, Roman coins etc.

Thanks to the archaeological and scientific research that had been made, all these objects, all that the country has been hiding for thousands of years will be presented in front of the public.

Also, this year, on the 8th of December, on the occasion of 2000 years of Christianity, Clements church dedicated to the holy healer Panteleimon, will be renovated and new frescoes will be drawn, and made available to its believers that would be able to bow down on the grave of their protector and patron of the city, St. Clement of Ohrid.

As we mentioned, above Clements church, St. Panteleimon, a mosque was raised by Sinan Jusuf Celebi Ohrizade in the 15th century. In the close area of the remains of the mosque, that had been torn down by a powerful earthquake in the 17th century, the burial chamber where Sinan Celebi was buried in 1493 exists. He raised, in his name, the mosque that is called with many names today: Tsars Mosque, Sinan Celebi - dzamisi, Sultan Fati Mehmed - dzamisi and so on. Also, a document on Arabic has been kept since 1491, according to which, Sinan Jusufi by giving away all his property, formed the charity organization "Imaret", a word that means a table with food, for the poor and the orphans. It existed until 1912 and where every Monday and Thursday free bread and soup were given both to the Muslim and the Christian people.

G. Angelicin-Zura

About the churches in Macedonia

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